>> lmao. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. ♪ french fries >> reporter: new york. >> we leave you with a beautiful shot. there it is. the capitol christmas tree, well lit right now, went out for a few minutes. it a beautiful sight here in washington. that's it for me. thank for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. the news continues next on cnn. good evening, everyone. tonight a defiant president obama retraces teddy roosevelt steps to what is the reddest of red states to make his case that government must be a tool in mighting america's alarming income inequality. >> this is the defining issue of our time. this is a make or break moment for the middle class and for all of those who are fighting to get into the middle class. because what's at stake is

whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement. >> that speech was a clear rebuke of republicans especially the tea party, and music to the ears of democrats who too often find their president too timid. >> their philosophy is simple, we are better off when everybody's left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. i am here to say, they are wrong. >> our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is here to up his game today. clearly framing the campaign. why today? >> reporter: that's right, he is framing the campaign. and it's because essentially it's heating up now, and he has to get in -- he has to get in campaign gear before the frame is set for him, john. the republicans that you know

are on the campaign trail every day trying to make this a referendum on the president's leadership on the economy. they think they'll win if it's a referendum on how the economy is now and the president's current job performance. if the president can turn this, the thinking goes here and on the campaign, into a debate about where the country's headed on contrasting visions of the nation's economic future, the obama team thinks that that's their sweet spot and that's where they can win. so the president today was trying to lay out his vision in this argument that the president can take the country in a better place if given another four years. you'll see this extend out once there's a republican opponent with the vision he was suggesting here that the republicans, he's saying, stand for a future where the middle class does not have as much opportunity as much window for equality, et cetera. >> jessica yellin, live at the

white house. the question democrats have, will the president extend it out? sometimes they plants a plflag d doesn't come out to it. four new polls, four, confirm a chakinging of the gar. newt gingrich is your front-runner, double dibgits, ad in iowa, south carolina, first and third stops in the republican nominating calendar. count mitt romney among those taking notice and hoping if the race drags on supports from conservatives like the former vice president, dan quayle in later states like arizona, might make the difference. >> 80% of the american people say the country is headed in the wrong direction. america around the world over the last several years has lost respect and credibility. my friends, washington is a mess and we need to send mitt romney to washington to fix the mess

out there. >> our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. you have gingrich back to the future candidate, quayle is back-to-the future endorsement as well. no reason to call mitt romney the front-runner anymore when you look through all of the polling. four weeks from tonight, iowa reshuffles the race. where do we stand today? >> i think today newt gingrich looks like the front-runner. i keep wondering if mitt romney is criticizing newt gingrich as being the career politician in this race, which is what he's doing, why is he standing next to dan quayle getting an endorsement from a career establishment politician? and that's what a lot of conservatives feel is wrong with mitt romney, he's lining up folks in the establishment, that he is not truly fighting for this nomination that what he's been doing is waiting for the other folks to destroy each other and then presume that he will emerge victorious, and one thing voters don't like is when

you tell them you know what? i'm standing in the wings and in the end you're going to decide you really like me. they tend to make up their own minds. >> playing it safe, you might call that, in short. we'll see if it works for mitt romney. important overseas news, a white-knuckle drama for the pentagon. sensitive stealth and u.s. military technology from a specialized drone is in iranian hands and perhaps, perhaps, soon to be shared with russia and/or china. chris lawrence is at the pentagon. the drone, whether shot down or whether it failed and crashed, the pentagon now believes it is in the hands of iran. what next? what might they have done to try to either get it back or destroy it? >> reporter: john, u.s. officials telling us this was a cia mission, looking for bad guys along the border. and he says they did have satellite surveillance of the drone when it went down and immediately they considered all options, everything from sending a ground team in to try to get it back over the border or

bombing the wreckage from the air, as they have done many times when drones have done down in the mountains of pakistan or afghanistan. all of the options are rule out as impractical to do actually in iranian land. >> so if they have this drone relatively intact, it has among the latest u.s. technology what can iran do with it, perhaps more importantly, how likely is it iran would share it with china or someone else? >> reporter: officials tell me highly likely. iran can't do all much with it by itself. countries like china are much further along in that technology. and they say why would iran bother? they can give it to china, let china unlock its secrets, everything from its code, paint, so to speak, its radar that makes it seem something other than what it is. let china unlock all 0 the secrets, reverse engineer it, sell it back to iran fully completed. >> major intelligence lost to the united states. chris, thank you.

in afghanistan, today dramatic images from two bomb attacks targeting worshippers observing a shiite holiday. live in kabul with the latest on the death toll. nick, the scale here is what is so rare. there are bombings all too frequently but the scale of this one, the depth of the death toll what do we know about it? >> reporter: what it is remarkable. we haven't seen mass casualty like this in kabul or afghanistan for a number of years now, the insurgency focusing certainly in kabul here on sustained attacks against precise targets so show their sophistication and reach. this obviously terrifying many because of it it's targeting the shia faith here as well. something stemming from iraq or a neighboring pack stage. afghan officials to blame the taliban and they're affiliates for this but accepting the body of the bomber which is damaged has slowed investigations, john.

>> in terms of the claim of responsibility, what do you know about the specific group in pakistan that says it's responsible? >> reporter: this is a phone call made to a radio station in pakistan by a fringe group over an offshoot of a group who we have heard of before, a claim not validated. we've been talking about a minor operation here, managing to penetrate the secure heart of the capital of a neighboring country. if they did this they would have needed some assistance, many would argue. if it was them or the haqqani network or another part of the taliban, there will be people pointing to pakistan, its military and intelligence services as being people who fundamentally facilitated that. something of course pakistan would deny. >> nick, thanks very much. a speech by president obama democrats are cheering as finally 345many say an economic battle cry for the 2012

campaign. >> we simply cannot return to this brand of you're on your own economics if we're serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. we they that it done result in a strong economy. it results in an economy that invests too little in its people and in its future. >> let's tack a closer look at that have, have not gap. the president is talking about, if you go back in time and look the income graph, going back to 1980, bottom 20% of americans, that's the dark red. middle is this deeper red. the green, the top 1% is the bright green. watch how this plays back out through the '80 and 90s. there's the top 1%. look at this, you see the bottom

20 percent here, a spike here, then you have the recession. watch recent years. this is what the president's talking. the upper 1% here, way up here in terms of their income gains and losses, the bottom 1% down here. how does that play out over time? this is what it has done to the united states of america in terms of the distribution of wealth from 1980 to 2007 bottom 90% has half of the wealth in the bottom 90. look at this from the last few year. you see the top 1%, green, look what has happened in the last four or five years, bottom 90%, its portion of its hold on america's wealth shrinking dramatically. ron brownstein is with me and on capitol hill, one of the democrats happy to see the president more aggressive in the debate and the economy over the role of government, donna edwards of maryland. the president planted an morn flag, a flag many democrats have been waiting for him to plant aggressively. it is important because since the tea party rise, since the republicans took back the chamber you serve in, the

president, at "times," has shied away from saying the government must be important, the government must have a role here. you welcome him to this debate. why do you think it took so long to get him there? >> i don't know about that. what i do know is the president has what drew me to his candidacy in 2008 was striking this cord that says we have to work hard a higher order to look out for what's good for all americans and i think today we heard that articulated in a way that has taken time to come together but i know that i received it really well. >> she received it really well. am i wrong in that the -- right after the election a lot of democrats, the president had a priority on spending reduction, here he's not saying those things are important but he planted a flag and said you're wrong. when it comes to taxes, you're wrong. when the government cannot be a an instrument to change this gap, between rich and poor, you're wrong. >> a case about the economy, the activist base in the democratic party wanted president obama and

president lin clinton. the closest thing we've heard to arguments emerge in the democratic base about what the meaning of the past four decades have been since we started to experience a slowdown in the living experience for americans. back to roosevelt's speech, he was talking in he affirmed an important role for government creating a fair economy. it was different, though. roosevelt's speech had a big component in which he talked about national unity critical to solving our problems. much more secondary today. >> you make that. i want to read something else you wrote in your column. as president, roosevelt chafed against but largely deferred to the intensely partisan politics of his era. out of office he started to think and then write and speak more exiplicitly about the uniqe role the president could play in bringing the flation together. the first sentence true about president obama he hoped washington would be different. but as president, couldn't you

insert obama, chafed against but largely deferred to the intensely part pan politics of his era? >> i would say the president came into an environment in which we face really tremendous economic challenges and so he had to balance against what he wanted to achieve as a vision for us as a united america with the real live situation of having to rescue us financially and fiscally over this last couple of years. in addition to trying to play out that vision. i think part of what excited me today about hearing the president was also a message about what kind of economy we could grow that could work for all americans, one based on research and development and innovation and technology and all of the things we know will be a hallmark of the 21st century economy we have to build on as americans to retain our status in the world and that we close those income gaps so that each of us as members of congress know that across our communities you don't have to go very far to know that that

income gap isn't just a pie chart or a bar graph. it's reality for so many americans. >> it is reality for so many americans. can the president convince the american people his way is the right way to deal with it. let's listen to more from the president. >> i believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot. when everyone does their fair share. when everyone plays by the same rules. these aren't democratic values or republican values. these aren't 1% values or 99% values. they're american values. we have to reclaim them. >> to reclaim them, he says the government has to be an instrument of doing that. he is going to make the case if he stays consistent to this in an election that will be two

years after the american people said something very different. >> absolutely. >> what do they believe has shifted that put him on solid ground to make that case, or is it a gamble. it is a gamble. it's the essential argument the democrats have faced for decades when you get to the specifics of individual government programs, by and large, they are popular. the public accepts many things that the government does. the question of the size and role of government, most americans usually but especially now say it's too big, too intrusive. the broader the argument, the betters it for republicans, narrow and specific the better for democrats. the white house belief is prospective the argument, the better off they are. hard to win a retrospective judgment where we are after three years unless one month improvement in unemployment is the beginning of a sustained trend. >> thank you for joining us. if you didn't see the president's speech, find the transcript of it or the video online, whether a democrat, republican, in the middle. it's an important speech by the president. you'll hear a lot of the themes

in the months ahead. he is a voracious reader. the truth is found in books we bet newt gingrich doesn't quite like. why it's time to call the former speaker front run somewhere why for him that isn't necessarily a good thing. ♪ what are you looking at? don't look up there. why are you looking up? ♪ get outta the car. get outta the car. ♪ are you ok? the... get in the car. get in the car! [ male announcer ] the epa estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. from spending time together, to spending your lives together, chevy runs deep. [ male announcer ] it has an hd webcam, killer audio, and lids that switch to start every semester fresh. but mostly it helps me try new moves on and off the court. ♪

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in just 28 day, 4 weeks from tonight, iowa votes. we begin to learn from the republican nominating contest will be a sprint or marathon. the proof is now indisputable, newt gingrich, not mitt romney, is deserving of the title republican front-runner. gingrich up double digits nationally. 15-point edge over romney. and state polls matter more. look at these, cbs/"new york times" poll in iowa, gingrich at 31%, romney in second at 17%, ron paul third. new abc news/"the washington post" is the same. gingrich, 33%, romney, 18%, ron paul 18%. and in south carolina, which votes third, brand-new poll has

the republican race at 38% gingrich, 22%, romney, and 9% for the texas governor rick perry. it is crystal clear congressman paul views gingrich, not romney, as the man to beat. >> if you want to put people in jail look at politicians who created the environment, the politicians who brought -- >> newt gingrich on the defense, taking $1.5 million. >> after he left congress, freddie mac paid gingrich $1.6 million. >> 1.6 million, some before the housing market collapsed. >> everything that gingrich railed against when he was in the house he went the other way when he got paid to go the other way. >> he's demonstrating to be the very essence of the washington insiders. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> after months of ignoring others to savage romney, team obama opened to taking aim at gingrich. >> he's running an ad in iowa starting today that talks about he's going to bring the country

together to solve problems. i don't think there's any single person in this country who did more to create the discord in washington that we see today than newt gingrich. he's really the godfather of gridlock. >> cnn contributor mary matalin knows speaker gingrich well as the former con man tom davis of virginia. the challenge now, the challenge for newt gingrich is now that he has the front-runner football, can he hold it? will he fumble it or will somebody strip it way. >> we've seen he's hlazarus now we have to see -- the old newt would fly too close to the sun. this newt is demonstrating a great maturity, that he's learned from his mistakes and he's grown a lot. he earned this ascendancy, it's not a hollow ascendancy, it's not flavor of the month. look deeper into the polls it's not just the top line. voters believe that he can lead

on the number one issue better than any other candidate in the race, which is economics. and gloria said something very insightful at the top of the show which is primary voters, in particular, wanted somebody who can fight. so every time all of these negative attacks ostensibly negative attacks show newt gingrich fighting it's reinforcing to themes a positive. they want a fight who are can take the message to the president and he's embodying that and his baggage is -- seems not to be holding him back. >> and that's an interesting question because us his rivals are takiing sharp aim. listen to congresswoman michele bachmann who needs to do well in iowa and is trying to find a way to convince voters there to peel off gingrich. >> his offices are located on the rodeo drive of washington, d.c., which is k street, and that's what he's been doing for years is being ainfluence peddler and he's the consummate inside. >> you might think congressman,

davis in this tea party grassroots driven, that those attacks would stick and yet as mary notes, so far, so far, people aren't peeling off gingrich. >> i don't think so. i don't think they're going to in this case. this is baked into the cake. people know about newt gingrich, the ethics violations, the marriages, and as the left and the president continue to attack him, this solidifies him with conservative base. >> issues with independent voters in the past. that could be the challenge down the road. listen to governor huntsman, he's not playing in iowa and he's trying to lump gingrich and romney together in a bad way. listen here. >> i'm running against a conservative flip-flopper, i'm running against a grandiose conservative and people are coming around to the reality that, i'm a consistent conservative. >> if you are advising a republican on how to get at gingrich, is that it? >> every time i hear governor huntsman whos a fine man, but remember he started his campaign

saying i'm not going to run a traditional campaign, i'm not going to attack my opponents these are mosquitoes on an elephant's butt, i'm telling you, john, you've seen this before. this is a message campaign. it is not a messenger campaign. you can rip up the messenger any which way and the obama people telegraphed they're going to do that no matter who's the nominee, the message, among independents you know what the big message is, less government, more effective government, accountabili accountability, regulatory reform, all the rest of it, independents side with republicans on that. newt, again, earned this ascendancy he was the clearest and the most concise and consistent in the debates. he needs to stay on message and not be more of a messenger. he shouldn't be all of the messenger he can be. >> mary used the term earlier, you've been around newt back in the day, she raised the parallel

of the fable of lazarus, if you will. you have watched newt get high in the sky and make the run for the sun many times in his career. do you see a different newt gingrich or are you counting the clock waiting for it to happen? >> he's very disciplined focused now. if this ace race of contrasting visions of the country there isn't a better spokesman. >> you believe he can beat barack obama, given his historical baggage with independents. >> netanyahu got elected with baggage. contrasting visions of the country the baggage couldn't count as much. if it comes to personal nationals, he has a problem. >> why isser in arizona? a closer look at crowded calendar for republicans. a leading tea party voice in congress responds to president obama's take on what ails the middle class. been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis.

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boil it all down, what the president said in kansas today is this -- republicans and especially tea party republicans are dead wrong when it cops to the economy and the role of government. for example, to republicans who oppose raising taxes millionaires, to help pay for extending a payroll tax cut that will help the struggling middle class -- >> this is about the nation's welfare. it's about making choices that benefit not just the people who have done fantastically well over the last few decades but

that benefits the middle class. and those fighting to get into the middle class. and the economy as a whole. >> and to republicans who want to repeal new banking regulations and consumer protections, well, there was this -- >> consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. and i intend to make sure they do. and i want to hear -- i want you to hear me, kansas, i will veto any effort to delay or defun or dismantle the new rules that we've put in place. >> how does that message sit with intended targets of capitol hill? conservative senator jim demint of south carolina. good to see you. if you listen to the president he sounds more aggressive, more defiant, more confident that he can go to the american people and say the tea party is wrong. >> this is obama's economy, john. he's gotten all of his major

policy initiatives for three years, the democrats have controlled the senate for five years, four out of five years in the house. this is their economy and they desperately need something to blame republicans on next year. republicans are all for lowering taxes for the middle class. but not for temporarily continuing to raid social security and say we're helping the economy. they're trying to help people with get more money who already have jobs when his policies are hurting the economy. >> let's talk about the payroll tax for a minute, because that is the fight at the moment. bigger and produbroader questio. payroll tax, some say we extend it if we find spending cuts, not a tax increase to pay for. listen to michele bachmann, one of the candidates for president, sounds like you're in her camp, i've supported in the past but i don't see evidence that it's stimulating the economy and it hurts social security. let's listen. >> he said he wanted to lower the payroll tax cut because it would create jobs. even the administration admits it didn't create jobs.

it hasn't helped to turn the economy around. why would we continue something that isn't working and that is taking 111 billion away from senior citizens when they need that money in the social security trust fund? >> so, senator, are you no because you don't think this works period? >> john, last year i voted against the temporary extension of the bush tax cuts and that included the payroll tax cut because i said that this is not a temporary economy, we don't need temporary tax policy. i was right. it did not help our economy. either extending the bush tax cuts or the payroll tax. there's no evidence of doing this is going to create more jobs but it will add to our debt and it will make our social security system less solvent. so i'm all for lowering taxes and whatever we do, we need to make sure it done add to our debt. but the president, john, i think this is the most important issue here, does not appear to want to continue the payroll tax deduction or the unemployment

insurance extension. he seems to want it as a political issue because if he wanted to sit down with republicans and democrats and work out an extension of the payroll tax, it would be easy to do because there are plenty of republicans who support it, a lot of democrats, but the president seems to want the issue, he doesn't seem to really want the policy. >> new winthrop poll in your state, is it possible atto dress the budget concerns without any tax increases? 30% in south carolina say possible, 63% say not possible. to get 63% in south carolina, you're getting a lot of republicans. is the republican party and the tea party on the wrong side of this issue? >> well, i would have to admit, we would probably lose the public relations battle but it depends how you ask the question. pat toomey created a budget we supported as republicans that balanced the budge net ten years without cutting social security or medicare and without raising taxes. all we have to do is keep

spending at today's level, we don't have to raise taxes on those creating jobs and that's what the president is talking about. business people know that he's all politics and no real policy right now. and this is a debate we're going to have to figure out how to win with the american people because promising more money is something that most people want. it's a battle that we have to take to the american people and hope we can win. >> a battle that begins four weeks from tonight in iowa, 45 days from the primary in your state. listen, senator, to a conversation we had the morning after the election back in 2010. you're a tea party favorite, conservatives follow your lead. back then you were quite high after the republican victory. let's listen. >> i think everyone who campaigned and won as republicans this time understands that we've got to do what we promised and that means less spending, less borrowing, less debt. so i think you're going to see a new republican party that will reearn the trust of the american people. >> that's november 3, 2010. does it surprise you, early

december, 2011, when we look at two leading conditions for the republican presidential nomination, yes, they are right of center but i don't think anyone would describe newt gingrich or mitt romney as hard core tea party grassroots anti-government conservatives, does that surprise you? >> well, all of our candidates carry the main principles of cap and balance, balance our budget, limit the size of government. people use the tea party now as trying to marginalize the folks like me and say we're far to the right. we're talking about what's best for america, we're generally talking about common sense. mostly what we're talking about is balanced budget and limited government. i think all of our candidates are doing that. the battle ground for me is in the congress, especially the senate. because any of these candidates for president who are republican would sign good bills if we could get them out of congress. so my focus is on electing senators through the senate conservatives fund. we've got to have five, six, eight more solid conservatives in the senate who will help us

balance our budget and keep us from going over the economic cliff. >> that poll we talked about a few minutes ago has newt gingrich at 38%, mitt romney who you backed four years ago at 23%, i'm getting from this conversation you're going to stay out of the presidential race, no endorsement at all, or given the stakes so late, might you jump? >> i don't plan to get in, john, right now. my focus is on the senate because if we can win the senate and have a good group of solid conservatives in the senate, i think we can send the next president some good legislation for a change. >> are you president with president gingrich or newt gingrich as nominee? >> i'm comfortable with any of the ones we're running right now relative to who's in the white house. >> appreciate your time. ahead -- guess who's coming home for the holidays. [ nadine ] buzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzzz, you know, typical alarm clock. i am so glad to get rid of it. just to be able to wake up in the morning on your own.

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welcome back. if you're just joining us, the latest news you need to know. the head of the federal aviation administration resigned. arrested on a drunking driving charge over the weekend. the u.s. embassy in iran shut down 30 years ago but today the obama administration opened the virtual embassy of the united states in tehran, a website intended to reach out to the iranian people. hundred as rested in moscow during protests against sunday's parliamentary elections.

protesters allege the elections were fraudulent. 170 soldiers from lewis mccord in washington state serving a long time in iraq, returned home tonight. expected to be the final chartered flight for soldiers from that base who have been on the ground in iraq. next -- tonight's number. we know iowa votes in 28 days. how will we know and what will the number be if the republican race turns into a marathon?your . d# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, that means taking a close look at you tdd# 1-800-345-2550 as well as your portfolio. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we ask the right questions, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then we actually listen to the answers tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before giving you practical ideas you can act on. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck online, on the phone, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or come in and pull up a chair.

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"erin burnett outfront" coming up at the top of the hour. an old house colleague of newt gingrich, the question would be, does he support the former speaker for president? >> well, obviously the devil will be in the details as in who is it? you're absolutely right about that. peter king, representative king was in the house for two years before newt gingrich came in and became the speaker. you know what? he has very strong words to say about the gingrich candidacy, john. he's not a fan. he talks about newt's inconsistencies how he cuts himself off at the legs, what he thinks is his egotism, all from representative king why he's concerned if newt gingrich is the nominee he won't become president of the united states. interesting to start to see splits in divisions in the republican party of people coming out and talking like this. we'll have that interview with representative king top of the hour. plus, a whole lot more. back to you. >> can't wait. see you in a few minutes, erin, thanks. the campaign, we know, iowa is 28 days from today but that's

not, that's not tonight's number. tonight's number, 84 days. why 84? that's the date of the arizona primary. mitt romney was in arizona today. he was once the front-runner, you have to say newt gingrich is now. if this turns into a sprint for a marathon, that's the question if it's a sprint, iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, a nominee, someone wins 2 out of 3, it's over. if not, iowa votes january 3rd, new hampshire a week late, south carolina 11 days after that, florida, wraps up january. if we go into february, that's when things get interesting. 4th nevada, a big romney state and he's trying to make arizona on the 28th. you see the days. will we know the nominee in 45, 56, 84 days? joining from new hampshire, newt gingrich new hampshire chairman andrew hemingway, with me in washington, cornell belcher workering for the president's re-election campaign. can mitt romney leverage the

establishment support including an endorsement from a guy who was an up and coming rising conservative star, the former vice president, dan quayle? >> governor, i'm here today to give you my enthusiastic endorsement and support. i am kf agaconfident that you w our nominee and i'm more confident that you will be the next president of the united states of america. >> pictures do speak a thousand words, andrew hemingway. we showed dan quayle, once a rising star in the party. you're a young star in the republican party. dan quayle represents the establishment economy to romney. the establishment is running from your guy, newt gingrich, count on new tea party activists like you. which strategy will work? >> i think that when you look at the recent polling and you look at the all of the evidence that's on the ground, there's definitely a surge. the tea party's a very real and alive group of very active motivated voters who are going to be coming out.

they're representing the american people in huge numbers. and as one of your guests earlier on in the show talked about, this campaign, you know, run by speaker gingrich, is one about solutions. it's one about messaging, it's about principles and ideals the country was founded on. it's a return to those things. it's tapping into that, that has -- that we've had a lot of success here with newt, it's rez nating in new hampshire. you can see from the polls that it's resonating across the country and tapping into the anti-government sentiment alive and well right now in the states. >> cornell belcher, he's a controversial guy, can you call him anti-establishment, you're chuckling. anti-government. he's to right of barack obama. >> he was once the second most powerful nan washington. >> indeed. >> it's hard to be anti-establishment. that's for the general election. right now if you look at what's

going on all of the endorsements moving to romney helping newt gingrich. look over the last couple of election cycle what america doesn't want the grassroots establishment folks. the establishment kiss is the kiss of death in the primaries. newt shouldn't want them. if i were romney, i would slow some of them down. >> slow some of this them down. andrew mentioned the poll. romney at 38%, gingrich at 23. that's recently. what makes it shocking, look in object, it was 33 to 4. the question, andrew, has been asked and asked time and time again, newt gingrichs a surge candidate. does he have the infrastructure on the ground, back to a great new hampshire primary four year ago when everybody thought when the day started barack obama was going to win and hillary clinton had old fashioned organization and in the end, on that night in new hampshire, she proved troops on the ground can matter. do you have them? >> we absolutely do. we've been building a very strong, very aggressive, fast, fast growing organization here in the state.

we have, you know, we're using leveraging a lot of social media, new technologies that are available to us. we've got a really great brand-new voigt phone system that will allow us to do thousand of calls in the evening. over 3,000 volunteers who have come on, signed up onon, signed newt new hampshire.com. i think that we are positioned very well in new hampshire right now, we recognize that we're behind, i mean governor romney has a house here, governor romney has been campaigning here for going on eight years and we recognize that we have a lot of work to do. and every day i talk to my staff and i say we have got to put our heads to the ground, we have got to win one more vote, tell one more person the messages here and that's how we're running this campaign. and i think we're in good shape. >> this is beautiful, as the

numbers continue to shrink, what the newt team should be doing is setting expectations. if romney wins new hampshire by a couple of points, that mean he is lost. he better lose new hampshire by eight, ten points going away. set the bar high for him. >> i want to play a little bit of the president's speech. the president delivered a very important speech today in kansas. the president planting a flag, and saying essentially, tea party you're wrong, the government is part of the solution, let's listen to the president. >> there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia, they were philosophy is simple, we are better off when everybody's left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules. i am here to say they are wrong. >> important because all

democrats, but a lot of democrats especially that democrat were a bit timid saying we have to forget about less government. this is a case to say the haves and the have-nots, the government has to be part of the solution. can he carry that throughout the election? >> this is what the american people want, the ideal that we have got to get back to american values, american values, one set of rules for everyone. those are the values that we built this economy on. >> it wasn't the mood of what happened in 2010. hemingway your state went heavy republican in 2010. it will be one of the states where we test this theory next november, right? >> i have been given some advice about the campaign and i would like to give some advice across the way. america is saying there is too much government, too much spending, we are concerned about

the debt and yet we have an administration who continues to, you know, use class warfare and use rhetoric to go against that and to push their own agenda. >> i'm going to jump in here, i do think we have an interesting day ahead. 2008 was one verdict from the american people, then there was 2010, let's make 2012 the tie breaker. up next, tonight's truth throws the book at newt gingrich. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation,

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we don't know how it ends just yet, but we are watching a fascinating new chapter in the political life of newt gingrich. laugh if you so choose, whatever wins that nomination will have a pretty decent shot at winning the presidency. here's tonight's truth, judging gingrich by the book or the books we should say is a fairly damning exercise. in his book, he writes of a speaker with a big, a huge ego and a clinton house that would take advantage of that by whenever gingrich visited sprinkling flattering gingrich magazine covers all over the room. he would tell us how the white house understood his significance and people would look around and say have u you lost your mind? i suspect the clinton people

suspected they could manipulate newt. ed gillespie was a very high staffer also took time to paint ego as a big gingrich weakness. a little over four years later, gingrich would lose his historic speakership, largely because he forgot that it wasn't about him. he began acting on a whim. notice a trend? here now two doozies from the former congresswoman suzanne moll nary. he would call and weep openly while talking about resigning because saving the world was simply too heavy a burden for him to manage. she went on to write, newt gingrich is one of the most complicated public figures our

day. well, truth is, gingrich is front and center again right now and his boasts last week that he would be the nominee was to many old colleagues, even some allies a hint of that vulnerability susan wrote about. but it's too soon to stay the old newt, the self-destructive newt is back. to his credit, he has been much more disciplined in this new chapter but the true test is the next four to six weeks. let's check in with andrew hemingway. andrew you're too young, i can tell by looking at you to have seen the old newt, l. >> i know newt personally and he is absolutely a man who has learned from his mistakes, he has taken that experience and he is a much better candidate and a better man ultimately for